Strategy. The fund uses a flexible investment approach across a diverse set of actively managed investment strategies to provide attractive returns relative to cash, seeking low correlation to moves in the broader equity and fixed income markets as well as low overall volatility. The fund has discretion to utilize a wide range of investments across a variety of asset classes including stocks, fixed-income securities, as well as often using derivatives to manage risk and hedge unwanted exposure. The fund primarily seeks exposure to the following strategies, which rely on both fundamental and quantitative research, and are described in more detail below: Macro and Absolute Return; Dynamic Global Bond; Equity Research Long/Short; Volatility Relative Value; Style Premia; Dynamic Credit; Dynamic Emerging Markets … Show more… The fund uses a flexible investment approach across a diverse set of actively managed investment strategies to provide attractive returns relative to cash, seeking low correlation to moves in the broader equity and fixed income markets as well as low overall volatility. The fund has discretion to utilize a wide range of investments across a variety of asset classes including stocks, fixed-income securities, as well as often using derivatives to manage risk and hedge unwanted exposure. The fund primarily seeks exposure to the following strategies, which rely on both fundamental and quantitative research, and are described in more detail below: Macro and Absolute Return; Dynamic Global Bond; Equity Research Long/Short; Volatility Relative Value; Style Premia; Dynamic Credit; Dynamic Emerging Markets Bond; Global Stock; and Sector Strategies. The funds allocation to a particular strategy will vary, and the fund may not have exposure to all of the strategies at all times. The funds overall allocation to each component strategy is driven by both risk analytics and the advisers outlook on the global economy and securities markets. Through exposure to these strategies, the fund seeks returns that are mostly independent of market direction. Dynamic Credit This is a highly flexible strategy that invests in a variety of debt instruments (including derivatives) with an emphasis on finding asymmetric long and short opportunities in individual issuers while actively managing volatility inherent in credit investing. Dynamic Emerging Markets Bond This benchmark-agnostic, flexible strategy combines high-conviction ideas across sovereign, corporate and local currency emerging markets bonds. The strategy seeks to balance uncorrelated opportunities in order to deliver a consistent return profile over time. Equity Research Long/Short This strategy relies on T. Rowe Prices extensive fundamental research capabilities to provide long and short exposure to global large-cap stocks. Utilizing a proprietary global rating system developed and maintained by T. Rowe Price, long positions are established in the stocks of companies that the adviser views as attractive within the large-cap stock universe and short positions are established in companies viewed as unattractive. The strategy leverages T. Rowe Price analyst convictions in companies to create a dynamically traded component portfolio that seeks to achieve returns that are not closely correlated with the returns of the overall equity markets. Dynamic Global Bond This flexible fixed income strategy seeks consistent positive returns without constraints to particular benchmarks or fixed income asset classes. The strategy has broad discretion to adjust duration (which measures price sensitivity to interest rate changes), credit exposure (which refers to the allocation between investment-grade and non-investment grade instruments, commonly known as junk bonds), and overall volatility (which refers to the amount of risk associated with the strategy as a whole) based on interest rates and global fixed income investing conditions. Global Stock This strategy seeks to capture the excess return of T. Rowe Prices Global Stock strategy over its benchmark. The underlying global equity strategy reflects a growth style and seeks to obtain exposure to stocks in at least five countries, including both developed and, to a lesser extent, emerging markets. Macro and Absolute Return This strategy seeks to leverage T. Rowe Prices global research expertise to select investments that represent, in the advisers opinion, the best investment ideas across all equity and fixed income asset classes. The ideas can be macro in nature, meaning that they rely on T. Rowe Prices analysis and prediction of large-scale events or trends that create the potential for strong performance, or they can be security-specific ideas that are focused on the expected return of a particular security or group of securities. Sector Strategies To implement this strategy, the fund will gain exposure to a mix of actively managed equity sector strategies, including, for example, the technology, industrials, consumer, health sciences, financial services, natural resources, and real estate sectors. This strategy seeks to capture the excess return of a mix of sector strategies over each strategys respective benchmark. The allocation to specific sectors may change over time. Style Premia This strategy analyzes various instruments across certain asset classes such as currencies, equity index futures, and bond or interest rate futures, in order to select investments based on whether the instrument exhibited positive characteristics or factors. Instruments in each asset class are evaluated based on factors the adviser believes to be predictive of attractive return. These factors include, but are not limited to, value (which focuses on investments that appear cheap over those that appear expensive), momentum (which focuses on investments that have performed well over those that have underperformed over a given period of time), and carry (which focuses on investments with natural or implied higher yields over those with lower yields, seeking to capture the tendency for higher-yielding assets to provide higher returns than lower-yielding assets). The resulting component portfolio aims to have positive (long) exposure to instruments that measured favorably under our factors and negative (short) exposure to those that measured unfavorably. Volatility Relative Value This strategy compares the market price of an option to our own forecast of the risk associated with the options underlying reference asset (for example, a treasury future or an equity index). Based on this analysis, we can form a view on whether that option is trading above or below fair value. We select investments for the strategy by selling options (if they are deemed overpriced by the adviser) and buying options (if they are deemed underpriced by the adviser). The fund has considerable flexibility in seeking capital preservation over time and low overall volatility, and its portfolio is constructed with a goal of providing consistent returns during any market environment. While the fund may lose value at times, the goal is to avoid periods of loss that coincide with negative returns in traditional asset classes, particularly equities. The funds adviser may adjust the portfolio and overall risk profile by making tactical decisions to overweight or underweight particular strategies, asset classes, or sectors based on the advisers outlook for the global economy and securities markets or risk considerations, as well as by establishing additional long or short positions outside of the strategies listed above, either through derivatives or physical securities. The fund may invest in securities issued by both U.S. and non-U.S. issuers, including issuers in emerging market countries. The fund may invest in stocks issued by companies of any market capitalization. The fixed and floating rate securities in which the fund may invest include bonds issued by U.S. and foreign corporations and governments, and bank loans. The fund may gain exposure to short-term investment-grade corporate and government securities. The fund may invest in debt instruments of any maturity, duration, or credit rating, including high yield or junk bonds. The fund may obtain exposure to commodities by investing in shares of one or more exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded notes (and total return swaps involving exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded notes) that invest in commodities. The fund may use a variety of derivatives such as futures, options, forwards, and swaps for a number of purposes, such as for exposure or hedging. Specifically, the fund uses index futures, interest rate futures, interest rate swaps, total return swaps, total return basket swaps, credit default swaps, credit default index swaps, inflation swaps, interest rate swaps, currency options, equity options, interest rate future options, options on credit default swaps, options on interest rate swaps, and forward currency exchange contracts. The funds use of futures typically serves as an efficient means of gaining exposure to a particular segment of the market. The fund may buy index futures contracts mainly as an efficient means of gaining exposure to a particular segment of the market, as well as to serve as a cash management tool and to enhance the funds returns. Total return swaps and total return basket swaps may be used to obtain exposure to a security without owning or taking physical custody of such security. The fund may buy or sell credit default swaps involving a specific issuer or an index in order to adjust the funds overall credit exposure, as well as to protect the value of certain portfolio holdings. The funds use of options can involve selling or buying put or call options in order to monetize the advisers views on expected forward realized volatility, or for hedging purposes. The funds use of options will be primarily at the index or asset class level, but is expected to also include options on individual issuers. The fund uses forward currency exchange contracts primarily to reflect the advisers outlook on the strength or weakness of the U.S. dollar compared to foreign currencies and the relative value of various foreign currencies to one another, although they may be used to protect certain holdings from adverse currency movements or to moderate the funds overall currency exposure. The fund has the flexibility to obtain long and short positions through a variety of derivative instruments. When the fund takes a long position, it purchases a security that it anticipates will benefit from an increase in the price of that security. Similarly, taking a long position through a derivative instrument will benefit from an increase in the price of the underlying instrument. The fund establishes its short positions through derivative instruments, which will benefit from a decrease in price of the underlying instrument and will lose value if the price of the underlying instrument increases. Simultaneously engaging in long investing and short selling is designed to reduce the net exposure of the overall portfolio to general market movements. The fund may engage in active and frequent trading of portfolio instruments to achieve its investment objective. Show less